Employees whose job duties require it, may need to set up Oracle SQL Developer on their workstations.

Before You Begin

This article describes how to set up Oracle SQL Developer on your workstation.

To set up Oracle SQL Developer, there are a number of things you must do:

• You must request View access to the databases you wish to access.
• You must request Oracle SQL Developer be installed on your workstation.
• You must obtain the TNS Details for your database connection and make sure this information is stored in your TNSNAMES.ORA file.
• You must add your database connection environments to Oracle SQL Developer.
• You must change your default password for each database connection to something else.
  
  

Each of these requirements is described in detail below.

Requesting "View" Access to Databases

To use Oracle SQL Developer, you must have access to one or more Oracle databases. To request View access to a database, please contact the Technology Support Center at (309) 438-4357, by email at SupportCenter@IllinoisState.edu, or via Live text at help.illinoisstate.edu/get-it-help.

When you contact the Technology Support Center, please be ready to provide the following information:

• Your name.
• Your ULID.
• Provide the names of the databases to which you need access.
  • If you are unsure of what databases you need to access, please consult with your supervisor..
  • If you need access to the saved Mainframe Legacy data (a.k.a. Mainframe Data Transition MDT), you will need access to the Oracle LEGACYP database.
• State that you need View access to these databases.

The Technology Support Center will route your request to the University database administrators. Your request will be reviewed and, if approved, you will receive an automated message from the Illinois State University SendTo system containing the following information:

• Your Oracle SQL Developer default password.
• Instructions on how to change your default password.
  • These instructions are also included in this article. Please refer to the section below entitled, Changing your Oracle SQL Developer Default Password.
• The TNS connection string, which must be added to the existing TNSNAMES.ORA file on your computer.

Request Oracle SQL Developer for your Computer

To request Oracle SQL Developer for your computer, please contact your departmental IT support team, or contact the Technology Support Center at (309) 438-4357, by email at SupportCenter@IllinoisState.edu, or via Live text at help.illinoisstate.edu/get-it-help.

Please be ready to provide the following information:

• Your name.
• Your ULID.
• State that you are requesting Oracle SQL Developer to be installed on your computer.
• Your computer tag# (located at the bottom of the Illinois State University bar code sticker on your University computer).

Your departmental IT team can download Oracle SQL Developer and install it on your computer.

Add the TNS Details to the TNSNAMES.ORA FILE

After the Oracle SQL Developer software has been installed, the TNS Details must be added to the TNSNAMES.ORA file on your computer.

To add the TNS Details to the TNSNAMES.ORA file, do the following:

1. Click Start →  Computer.
2. Navigate to C:\oracle\product\version #\client_1\network\admin.
   • Replace 'version #' in the URL above with the version # of Oracle SQL Developer installed on your computer.

3. Open the TNSNAMES.ORA file in Notepad.

   Important

   Copy the TNS Details from the email you received in response to your request for View access into Notepad. Then, copy the same text from Notepad. This is necessary since copying directly from an email into your TNSNAMES.ORA file can introduce unwanted hidden characters into the TNSNAMES.ORA file which will cause connection errors.

4. Paste the TNS Details you copied from Notepad to the bottom of the TNSNAMES.ORA file.
5. Save the file and close it.

Add Database Connection Environment(s) to Oracle SQL Developer

After the Oracle SQL Developer software has been installed and the TNS Details have been added to the TNSNAMES.ORA file, the database connection environment(s) must be added.

Important: Please consult with your department's IT team before making changes to your computer.

To add the database connection environment(s) to Oracle SQL Developer, do the following:

1. Open Oracle SQL Developer.
2. In the Connections pane, on the left side of the application window, click on the green plus + icon.
3. In the New/ Select Database Connection pane, enter a name for your connection.
   • This can be whatever name you want to call it, but it is recommended that you use the name of the database environment.
4. Enter your ULID and your Oracle SQL default password in the fields labeled Username and Password, respectively.
   • Your Oracle SQL default password was provided to you in the email that you received when you were granted View access.
5. Put a check mark in the box labeled Save Password.
6. Under the Oracle tab, click the Connection Type drop-down menu and select TNS.
7. In the field next to Network Alias, click the arrow to select the database environment.
   • You will see database environments to which you have been granted View access.
   • For the saved Mainframe Legacy database (a.k.a. Mainframe Data Transition MDT), you will see LEGACYP.
   • If you have requested access to one or more other databases, those will be listed here.
8. Click Test to verify a successful connection.
9. If the test is successful you will see the message, 'success' at the bottom of the pane.
10. Click Save.
11. Click Connect.

Now proceed with changing your default password, as described below.

Changing your Oracle SQL Developer Default Password

Once you have connected to a database environment, you should change your Oracle SQL Developer default password for that connection. You must complete these steps for each database connection.

To change your Oracle SQL Developer default password for a database connection, do the following:

1. Open Oracle SQL Developer on your computer.
2. In the Connections pane, double-click on the name of the database connection for which you would like to change your password.
3. On the Worksheet tab, under the (Your Database Connection Name) tab, type the following in the first, yellow-highlighted line:
   • ALTER USER ULID IDENTIFIED BY NEWPWD
4. Next replace 'ULID' the line above with your actual ULID, and replace 'NEWPWD' with your desired password.
   • Example: ALTER USER RREDBIRD IDENTIFIED BY abc_123QRX_
   • In the example above, the user's ULID is 'rredbird' and the password is being changed to 'abc123QRX_'.
5. When you have finished writing your SQL query, execute it by clicking either of the green arrow buttons above the Worksheet tab.

Technical Assistance

For technical assistance, you may contact the Technology Support Center at (309) 438-4357, by email at SupportCenter@IllinoisState.edu, or via Live text at help.illinoisstate.edu/get-it-help.